Guernsey – haven for mercenaries

The Guernsey Court of Appeal has recently (06/04/05) overturned the decision tallow access by the government of Equatorial Guinea access to the account records and safe deposit boxes of Simon Mann, jailed British mercenary leader (for background on this case see Corporate Watch Newsletter 22 ). The records are believed to show who financed and organised Mann's attempted coup against them. Financiers may have included Jeffrey Archer (who 'denied' it with a solicitor's statement saying he'd never personally met Mann, but didn't address the question of why Mann's account had $134,000 paid in by one JH Archer).

In deciding not to allow Equatorial Guinea access to the records, Guernsey's appeal court is effectively saying the case has got nothing to do with Equatorial Guinea, that they believe Mann's claim that he was simply on the way to the Democratic Republic of Congo rather to take part in the coup in Equatorial Guinea. Which is odd because other people involved in the operation – including 'Sir' Mark Thatcher – were prosecuted in South Africa, and they admitted it was indeed a coup against Equatorial Guinea and were convicted accordingly.

It seems that basically, the court is saying that Mann is 'one of ours' and so we have to help him out, even if we hold evidence that he is an international terrorist who contravenes the Geneva Convention. As if to prove they were sticking their fingers in their ears and going la la la, the court said they were 'unaware' of any UK criminal investigation into the affair, despite the widely reported inquiry currently being conducted by the British Anti-Terrorist Branch.

Another reason for the Guernsey court decision must be because if they were to r elease Mann's records it would make anyone else taking advantage of Guernsey's financial rules – criticised by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development for lack of transparency and 'harmful' tax practices – get very worried . The financial sector employs 20% of Guernsey's population and is 60% of its GDP. There's serious talk on those islands of becoming separate independent countries rather than comply with British financial laws.

If Guernsey loses its appeal for tax exiles and business scammers then it loses the overwhelming majority of its economic life – no wonder its courts are so ready to stand in the way of investigations against terrorist funding.

This is Guernsey, 6/4/2005, 'Equatorial Guinea is denied account access', Tracey Ellis http://www.thisisguernsey.com/code/showarchive.pl?ArticleID=012771&year=2005&category=news

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue22/issue22_part10.htm

The Times , November 19, 2004 'Thatcher to ask Britain to help halt extradition', http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1365099,00.html

'Thatcher fined over “coup plot”', BBC news, Thursday, 13 January, 2005 , http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4169557.stm

Mercenaries are prohibited under Article 47 of the 1977 Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Convention http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/93.htm

The Times , February 24, 2005, 'Despot will testify on Thatcher coup attempt in a British court' by Liz Chong, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1497736,00.html

Third World Network , Offshore Financial Centres Continue to Resist OECD Pressure, by Julio Godoy, http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/offshore.htm

Financial Times , Jersey Takes First Step to Independence, VoteTax Havens Island’s Referendum Call Prompted by
Government Support for Efforts to Increase Financial Transparency, August 29, 2000, http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/haven/jersey.htm